Word: discounter
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...hoping its flight to fashion will boost sagging sales. In 1999, its profits hit a high-water mark of $54 million but have been sliding since, down to $20 million last year. The slump is largely due to increased competition - not only from rival charity shops, but also from discount retailers like Primark and Peacock, which sell trendy new clothes at prices nearly as low as those found in secondhand shops. Says Sarah Farquhar, Oxfam's retailing head: "We realized we needed a different clothing-business model...
...meeting I attended, the FAA said that shortly after the turn of the century, aircraft accidents will increase dramatically. The officials [who were making the case for increased FAA funding] said matter-of-factly that if demand for flights increases at present rates and if growth of discount airlines keeps up at the current pace, we can expect a major crash every week or so after the turn of the century...
Atlanta-based ValuJet was a phenomenal success story. In just three years, it had leaped from two planes on eight routes between Atlanta and Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa, Florida, to 51 planes with 320 itineraries. Founded in 1993, the discount carrier saw revenue soar to $368 million...
After the crash, government officials began appearing on television to reassure the public that discount airlines were safe to fly. Top officials at the Department of Transportation shifted quickly into crisis-management mode. Secretary Federico Pena drew on his own experience flying ValuJet to reassure the public on national television: "I have flown ValuJet. ValuJet is a safe airline, as is our entire aviation system." Pena insisted that "if ValuJet was unsafe, we would have grounded...
...agitated, defensive voice, Pena said an FAA report proved that discount airlines were as safe as the major carriers. But Pena had to know this simply wasn't true. He was protecting an airline just the way government officials had for decades. In fact, the FAA had an avalanche of evidence that proved that ValuJet had been troubled for months and that other marginal airlines were just as unsafe. Conclusions from the report Pena referred to were etched into my memory. It revealed that the cumulative safety rate of discount carriers was skewed because one of them, Southwest...